Tanya Ballard Brown

T. Ballard Brown

Tanya Ballard Brown is a Southern girl, an optimist and a wild dreamer who laughs loudly and often.

As an editor for NPR.org, Tanya brainstorms and develops Web-only features; collaborates with radio editors and reporters to create compelling Web content that complements radio reports; manages online producers and interns; and, line edits stories appearing on the website. Tanya also writes blog posts, commentaries and book reviews, has served as acting supervising editor for Digital Arts, Books and Entertainment; edited for Talk of the Nation and Tell Me More; filed on-air spots for newscast, and helped curate the NPR Tumblr. Occasionally, she joins the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast as a guest host.

Tanya is former editor for investigative and long-term projects at washingtonpost.com and during her tenure there coordinated with the print and online newsrooms to develop multimedia content for investigative reports.

She also led production of the 2006 "Being a Black Man" series, which won numerous awards including the Peabody, Scripps Howard National Journalism award, Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism and a regional Emmy award. Other Web projects included "Silent Injustice" and "Walter Reed and Beyond."

A native of Charlotte, N.C., and an alumna of N.C. A&T State University, Tanya is a former congressional fellow with the American Political Science Association. She has been a reporter or editor at GovExec.com/Government Executive magazine, The Tennessean in Nashville and the (Greensboro) News & Record.

In her free time, Tanya teaches an ethics course at Georgetown University, does storytelling performances, fronts a band filled with other NPR staffers, sings show tunes, dances randomly in the middle of the newsroom, takes acting classes and dreams of being a bass player. Or Sarah Vaughan. Whichever comes first. She lives in Washington, D.C.